The dawn must come.

The dawn must come.

Thursday 20 February 2014

ABAM or ABM? IRRELEVANT.


By: Ahmed ELNAHAS – Montopoli, February 20th 2014.
If studying the long history of War On Terrorism and Guerrilla Warfare has demonstrated anything whatsoever, that is having furnished us with many irrevocable proofs on one simple rule fundamental to determine the exit of these types of conflict:

“If you allow your opponent larger time span than necessary to fight, he will adapt his tactics to your techniques; thus will bleed your energies till exhaustion”.

“Ansar Beit Al Maqdis” (aka ABAM and not ABM as echoed by media) are doing exactly that.. They are forcing our Police Special forces, together with the Armed Forces Anti-Terrorist Corp, into a long term armed confrontation to dictate the terms of the battle turning it into the most exhausting conflict possible; and to provoke a dangerous resources haemorrhage to drain out much of the nation’s physical, cultural and moral energies.

These groups have learned well the Syrian lesson.. They know for certain that neither the Armed Forces nor the Police will risk adventuring into the slippery grounds of a full scale war; so they will continue their “Hit & Run / Hide & Seek” type attacks, as long as their opponent would permit them to do so.

The problem is that they are just like Organised Crime Cells: they are resourceful, well infiltrated, they are unscrupulous, they are more agile, they move faster, and they communicate efficiently. While the Police and Army forces are handcuffed by rules, norms, laws, politics, media, and most of all by the Public Opinion that will never forgive them if they’d lose patience and slide into what may turn into a bloody Civil War.. Which is precisely the aim of ABAM, and obviously that of their sponsors; to systematically and constantly control one piece of territory at a time.. Piece over another become a city, a region, a governorate and so on.

And in every step along that way, they’d establish their rules, their laws and by their terror.. Same scenario used in Afghanistan by the Taliban gangs, in Lebanon by Hezb’Allah, in Gaza by Hamas, and now in Syria where the radical Islamist groups, have seized a firm grip controlling the North of the country, have issued an ultimatum to women: The Veil Or Else.

On January 26, 2014; David Barnett, a research associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, published a study for the Conference on Foreign Relations (CFR) questioning the Egyptian case. In the course of that analysis he wrote:

“Cairo’s current approach, in other words, may not be properly addressing the serious jihadist threat to Egypt that was once clearly limited to the Sinai Peninsula, but has now reached across the Suez Canal. Recent admissions by Egyptian officials indicate that Sinai jihadists have been avoiding security sweeps and reaching the Nile Delta and Cairo, among other locations. This, along with Friday’s attacks, raises serious questions as to whether enough resources are being deployed to deal with Egypt’s growing jihadist problem, particularly as these forces display an ability to adapt to ongoing Egyptian military operations”.

Pass On The Word.

Thursday 13 February 2014

Dependent or Independent, that is the question.

By: Ahmed ELNAHAS – Montopoli, February 10th 2014.
When you give your son/daughter, the daily, weekly or monthly pocket money; you will not be happy to find out that he/she have gambled, bought drugs and needled themselves with it.. In fact it is, and has been, YOUR MONEY in the first place. You will then shout at them the classic line: “you can do whatever you want with your money when you earn it; right now you do as I say”. But you’ll remain in agony tormented and torn between keeping the pay as it is and maintain a closer look on their whereabouts; or cut the pay and risk their procuring it somewhere else.. Out of your CONTROL.
However, and in any case, you will forget looking into yourself to admit and confess your inability, or reluctance if you wish, to teach your son or daughter, from the very early stages, the true value of WORK: Independence and Responsibility.
Depending on “Charity” had never generated the necessary thrust to drive onwards any type of economy; whether it is a family nucleus“Financial Management” or a sovereign state’s “Real Economy Planning”.
Awaiting passively the pseudo-political virtual grants of “Petro-Dollars”; or actively performing frenetic efforts in “Back Doors Diplomacy” trying to soften the American Congress’ firm stand vis-à-vis the annual tip and/or the mild “Military Contribution”; cannot establish the economic stability essential for employment and growth.. Such would produce only a population of ‘dependant beggars’ instead of ‘independent producers’. Short-sighted policies as such, will never incentivise small and micro entrepreneurship’s activities. Those imperatively needed to fortify the Middle Class status; to lay the strong foundation for a promising economy.. A real economy. 
The worst part is that these short-sighted policies are genuinely being falsely dispatched, by the institutions through the media: once as ‘Donations’, sometimes as ‘Aids’ but most of the time as projects of ‘Technical Assistance’ to set up the Structural Adjustments Programmes suggested (dictated) by the donating International Credit Institutions: the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.. (Both US firms by the way)!
That was precisely the fatal mistake committed by our consecutive “Patriot Leaders”.. To subdue and surrender under the arm twisting threats and manipulations that drove us thus far: begging our daily survival.. And today our new found rulers have found the blunt face to tell us that the new debts “…are indispensable to attract foreign investments to generate stability by creating new jobs and to prosper our economy”!!!
Well gentlemen I have news for you.. The right, and only, way to attract foreign investments to generate stability by creating new jobs and to prosper our economy is a nation wide courageous, collective and comprehensive, hard but devoted, work to:
a)      establish practical tax laws and regulations;
b)      demolish the paralysing bureaucratic machinery; and
c)      engage seriously in a constant fight against corruption in every form.
I believe that only then serious investors (not high rollers professional gamblers) will be motivated more than attracted to risk their fortunes into our economy.
Nevertheless, we have to place our own bet.. We must play the odds not the hand.
Pass On The Word. 

Monday 3 February 2014

From Protest to Insult: the immoral abuse of Freedom.

By: Ahmed ELNAHAS - Montopoli, February 3rd 2014.
Surfing the web on facebook and tweeter, I discovered the existence of new languages with infinite inventions of sounds mistakenly taken for meaningful words; either in English, Italian, French or Arabic. At first it seemed funny, but the more I got involved in these social networks, the more I realise the gravity of the harm it procures to the intent of communication as an effective mean bridging and connecting worlds and cultures.
It seems as if billions of individuals are sharing the same room, and are all out-speaking each other simultaneously, yet no one is listening. The worst is that the passive observer among this crowd, will not be able to distinguish the issues discussed, the agreements or the disagreements in question; because the tones are very loud and the lexicon is extremely poor. To the point that often you’d encounter such a degraded vocabulary close to the mere slums’ vulgarity, where the insult is considered only a caress!
We know that in the absence of reason the voice pitch tends to turn louder; and the unwillingness to spare some space for the ‘OTHER’ to express an opinion or a thought would have the windward. Thus flourishes the realm of confusion, hatred and indifference; to the point that insignificant trivialities would preside the popular list of ‘National Priorities’; while the real vital and pressing issues concerned with the urgent needs of the society and those of the country would lose its way to the list itself.
Nevertheless, I am almost convinced that it should take sometime before the collective conscience would regain its reason, to channel social awareness towards better goals for a more constructive use of modern technologies.
Hope I’m right about this one.
Pass On The Word.

Injustice in the name of LAW!

By: Ahmed ELNAHAS – Castelfiorentino, February 2nd 2014.

Political protests used to be seen by many – even politicians – as a legitimate form of popular expression and a way for citizens to shape the direction of their nation. Not anymore!

My head is exploding.. My brain is drained.. My spirit is hurt. Since the moment I got hit yesterday morning by two scenes of authority’s oppressive expression. Scenes that I thought vanished from my beloved Egypt. I was wrong.. Wrong to fathom that a large blanket of freedom is embracing a recovering nation, from a long acute pathology named Dictatorship, like a caring devoted mother would embrace her convalescent child.

1.   One concerns a young lady, probably a student or maybe even a housewife; apparently a veiled Muslim protestor, being dragged over the tarred road surface and systematically stripped out of her cloths by two policemen, while a third person kicks her gut and a fourth is watching their backs from any possible undesirable intervention.


2.      The other scene is about 35 men representing 350 employees working at the historic Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor/Egypt.. According to those men, they were delegated by the rest of the staff to perform on their behalf a “Symbolic Strike” (having notified and obtained the police permission) to present their documented demands to the proper authorities: in this case their employer, their manager, their syndicate and the competent offices of the Ministry of Labour.


Now let us take a closer and deeper look into the merits of the two issues.. The girl will probably be charged with whatever crime by whichever code; she may as well be jailed for a while then released, after having been subdued by all kinds of humiliation, without the shadow of an official apology or a slim chance for appealing to the court of law for justice.. But the issue here is not any of that; my focus is on the four policemen in the photo and what they represent.
As they are performing the lowest act of “Abuse” over an unarmed and defenceless citizen.. And her being a woman, didn’t help much finding the slightest shade of gallantry.. Ironically the art that most Egyptian men brag about mastering its codes.. Yet I was able only to detect man’s atrocity, impiety, even amusement and devotion to inflict harm.
Those policemen, being by grade placed in the bottom of the ‘Executive Authority Hierarchy’, are representing here the Fierce Iron Fist of the “Security Forces Strategic Policy”.  The very same that was drawn and approved back in the late sixties of last century. The strategy which tactics and rules of engagement, are well known to my generation.
Now, to carefully observe the Winter Palace case, I say that according to:
a)      the actual lam labour laws,
b)      the absence of any significant real value of whichever syndicate or labour union, and
c)      the complicity of the corruptive financial muscles of Business Owners and Employers;
most probably those men will be suspended (if not fired) and left alone feeling betrayed by their ‘scab’ colleagues in the first place; who will silently prefer to maintain the job sacrificing their rights, for which their “delegated representatives” are now risking everything they have ever lived for.
They were also betrayed by their Employer; who, instead of offering an open round table reunion to discuss their demands  in the context of working together to reach a commonly acceptable agreement; he not only denied their right to protest and/or strike; but as well have already filed claims charging them of “Terrorism and Instigation to Violence and Sabotage”! To terrorise the others and ‘Legally’ gets rid of the ‘rebellious rotten sample’.
Those men are left alone unprotected by anyone or any law, as the easy preys to a specie of vultures commonly known as ‘labour lawyers’. Who will suck their blood for a few years, while they become more and more victims of need and debts.. If nothing happens quickly to solve their situation they will slowly lose their dignity before themselves, their families and friends.. But most of all they will certainly lose their faith in JUSTICE.
These two cases are joint together by the same chain of key words: abuse, power, authority, tyranny, cruelty and injustice.. In both cases, the right to protest or claim a denied right is overwhelmed and completely ignored. Moreover, this is done according to the prevailing laws. Consequently, the girl becomes a “Subject” not a citizen; and the strikers along with their colleagues “Wage Slaves” not employees.
As for the Policemen, the Executive Authority, the Labour Syndicate, and the Employer; I invite you to find yourself the most suitable adjectives to qualify their ‘lawful’ doings. When you do, let me know and..
Pass On The Word.